Jun 6, 2010

Note: Never buy real estate in the Willamette Valley, Oregon on a sunny day, buy a computer before visiting the Apple store and get old!

HEADLINES IN OREGONIAN

Don't tell me newspaper people don't have a sense of humor. The last week the Oregonian here in the Portland, Or. metro area ran this as a headline:

Dear Rain,

We give.

Sincerely,

Portland

I have a very good piece of advice for you...IF YOU ARE FROM OUT OF TOWN, NEVER, NEVER BUY A PIECE OF REAL ESTATE IN THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY ON A SUNNY DAY! We have been home from Arizona for 5 week now. It was nice for two weekends in a row. But it rained steady the rest of the time. Now it has rained so much my daughter's cherry tree tipped over in her back yard...very close to the house. She does not live on a hill or in a depression. It has just rained so much that any tree even near to being tippy will fall over. They fall on the freeways, people's houses and in the woods. There is a price to be paid for our beautiful countryside. We know that it rains a lot but, if you are from say Arizona, you might not. Just thought you would want to know.

A VISIT TO THE MALL
As you may or may not know, I am a Apple computer user and have been since the beginning, of the Apple computer I mean! We currently have 3 of them in our house, an iphone and several we have given to grandchildren. I have a hard time figuring out why anyone would go through the pain of using a PC. But then that is just me. When google announced last week that it would be going away from the Microsolf operating system I could only think what took you so long?

The fun begins very young!

Grandmother getting ipad help!

That bring me to our visit to the Apple Store in Washington Square in Beaverton, Oregon. This is a stop we make anytime we are in the area. I just want to see what is going on. The new ipad is causing quite a stir in the neighborhood...that is just a given. But what interested me more than anything was the cross section of people standing at the counter just giving it a whirl. Both young and old are finding this new computer toy interesting. One click to what I need always works for me!

THOUGHTS ON AGING
My husband has not been well since we returned home. A bout with a nasty bug has left him sapped and complication have been detected. We have gone to a specialist, had a proceedure done at Portland Providence Hospital and now we are waiting. This, I suppose is the lot of retired people. Illness happens. Sigh!
We ventured out today for the first time since his little visit to the hospital for breakfast. I love this part of our life. A man and his wife sat near us and I noticed a walker to the side and wondered about their age. Is that the way I am suppose to look? I cannot tell if people are 90 or 65 anymore. I cannot even visualize what a woman of 68 (my age) is suppose to look like.
Much to my delight the man stopped by our table and struck up a conversation. So we were treated to his life's story and yes, we loved every minute of it. The lovely lady had been his wife for 65 years. They had married at 17 and called Christmas Valley their home. We will not be moving there anytime soon...well never! But he loved it. Isolated in the south east corner of our state, locked in the basin that allows no water to escape to any ocean and covered with sagebrush and cheat grass, this place takes a special person to find it's beauty. I could tell he was a very special man. His parting words were You've got to have fun! All I could think was, Amen. Even when you are sick you still need to find the fun in the day. We are trying!

I had been collecting things for you all week. Bits and pieces of my life to share with a kindred spirit...that would be you in case you were wondering. They were in a bag somewhere inside a drawer deep in the recess of my mind...and I thought I had lost it. It was really kind of sad in a lot of ways. Thankfully I found the bag in a locked drawer behind the name of my high school principal!

Have a wonderful week. I hope you find something that interested you here.